Morgan Le Fay; The True Story

Chapter Fourteen

Mordred and I were welcomed by my family with no questions, and I sent Mordred off to play with Devin's children. Apparently his father had arranged a marriage for him after I had left, and his wife was a little younger than I.

They told me everything that had happened since I'd left. Aunt Mary had died in childbirth about a year after I'd taken my vows, and the baby had died with her. Leslie had given birth to three children, two daughters and a son by Gavin, before dying of some illness that had swept through that part of the countryside.

Kellan had given birth to two sons as well, and had five miscarriages. Since then she had seemingly been unable to conceive and Cyric had been so disappointed by the most recent miscarriage, she had decided to come and visit her family's land.  

Their brothers had finished their training as knights and been awarded land by their respective overlords. They too had married and had children, though neither Kellan nor Devin had seen them for a while.  

Then they told me the worst of the news. An illness, the sweating sickness they called it, had come to Uncle's lands. It killed both sets of twins, Rose, Linette and Uncle the summer it struck. Caedmon, who had been five when I left, had been paralyzed by the illness, but still lived.  

"He's turned bitter," Kellan said, looking like the weight of the world rested on her shoulders. "He resented not being able to train to be a knight, and now he refuses to go to a monastery, where he could possibly pass the time with the liturgy."

  I sighed heavily and downed a bit more of my tea. Several hours had passed since we had arrived, and I had grown lazy as they had told me of these sad tidings, sitting in my chair by the fire.  

"And what of you, Morgan?" Devin asked me. "How has it come to be that you have a child?"  

"Well," I said, setting the cup aside. "His mother came to the abbey the night before my twenty-fifth birthday. She didn't seem well at all, and she was already giving birth when they found her. I was one of the sisters who attended her, and I was the one to sit with her throughout the night, after she'd given birth. She died in the early morning." I smiled bitterly.  

"I gained a child because I couldn't save his mother," I continued. "I owe it to him." Kellan looked surprised by how upset I was, while Devin nodded thoughtfully.  

"You must care for him deeply," he said. "To leave the abbey for him."  

"I do," I said, looking at my cousin. He had aged greatly over the last fifteen years, but he looked dignified despite the grey in his hair and the fine lines that had formed around his eyes.  

"Where do you plan on staying with him?" Kellan asked, changing the subject.   

"I don't know," I said. "I was going to see if I could live here, or maybe with either you or Leslie, Kel. I would rather seek out a home with my family first."  

"I can almost promise you that Cyric won't permit you to live with us," Kellan said, a sad look on her face. "He hasn't been very fond of me recently, or even of my family, not since I haven't been able to give him anymore children. And I can't say I blame him. I'm getting old, after all."  

"Oh?" I asked, surprised. Kellan sighed.  

"He may be older now, but he's still good looking," she said, slightly upset. "He's proven himself to Camelot again and again, particularly after Uther died."  

"What?" I asked, stunned. I had just picked up my tea cup again for a sip, but it fell from my fingers and smashed on the floor. "Oh, no."  

"Don't worry about it, Morgan," Devin's wife said, placing a hand on my shoulder as I knelt to clean it up. She knelt with me, and began to do the same. I felt Kellan and Devin staring at me, and I knew I didn't want to hear what they had to say.